Eighteen players represent less than a full MLS roster. It’s about three percent of the league, though depending on who Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl reached out to for these posts at SI.com (here and here), this could work. If you get the right people, your sample could reasonably reflect the population.

I’ll leave the rest of that to Nate Silver.

More likely, this is just the view of 18 dudes. Is it random? The people at the top of Wahl’s speed dial? Those who happened to be in New York recently to help the league’s preseason promotions?

Who knows, and it probably doesn’t matter. Parse it too much and you lose the fun of this exercise, where Wahl asked his sample a number of hot button questions about the league.

Here are some of the more conclusive outcomes:

Thierry Henry got six votes for player with whom you’d most want to start a team. Nobody else got more than two.

Players voted 15-3 to ban “artificial turf,” though it should be noted no Major League Soccer team plays on artificial turf. This insane discussion continues. So glad we’re making progress.

Columbus and Dallas both got six votes for least fun city in the league. No other destination got more than two.

Fourteen players said retroactive punishment is necessary. Good. I think we saw the positive impact this had last season.

Seventeen out of 18 said a gay player would be accepted. These seem like optimistic response, but I really hope it’s true.

None of those surveyed knew of an instance of a player being approached by gambling interests.

Sixteen agreed with Don Garber – MLS would be a top league by 2022.

Wahl’s survey is 25 questions long and worth your time (it won’t take more than a few seconds to skim it). It may only reach out to 18 players, but where there’s consensus, we get a good idea of where players stand. On some of the issues — retroactive punishment, gay players — that viewpoint’s enlightening.

Mostly, it’s just a fun exercise. There have been some early attempts to glean insight from it, but as Wahl intimates in his intro, this is a fun way to do a preseason preview. Some results were informative, but it’s not necessarily scientific.

Never mind all that: Harry Kane was healthy, and scored three goals as Spurs kept pace with group mates Real Madrid in filing a 3-0 win at APOEL Nicosia in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.

Kane said he was very proud of the side’s performance, as youngster Anthony Georgiou and seldom-used Georges-Kevin N’Koudou put in shifts in the win. From the BBC:

“We weren’t pleased with the first-half and a couple of chances could have gone the other way. We were more clinical and in the Champions League that is what you have got to be.

“We are missing a few players but the lads who stepped in were fantastic. We have a solid squad and you have to be ready. 3-0 away in the Champions League no matter who you play is a good result.”

Kane has 11 goals in September between club and country, and has six hat tricks in 2017. There may not be a finer big striker firing in Europe right now, and both England and Spurs will hope to ride him well into 2018.

A point from far from home is not the end of the world, but Liverpool will rue its missed chances in a 1-1 draw at Spartak Moscow in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.

Goalkeeper Artyom Rebrov had a stellar day for Spartak before being injured and then replaced by Aleksandr Selikhov, who was also strong for the Russians.

Fernando (not that one) scored a free kick for Spartak, while Philippe Coutinho bagged the equalizer that keeps the Reds ahead of Spartak on goal difference. Both sides are three points behind Sevilla.

Hugo Lloris flubbed an early clearance and was fortunate to see the back-bounding ball dribble wide of his left post.

Carlao could’ve given APOEL a surprise lead close to halftime but headed wide of the net from within 10 yards.

Kane nearly added an assist to his ledger at the start of the second half, but Son Heung-min just missed his effort wide of the frame.

He scored another goal anyway, and another one. Moussa Sissoko set Kane up for the second of the night, a relatively simple finish for the striker, and Kane completed his trio of goals when he headed Kieran Trippier‘s cross home.